Local mom: 'I was actually pretty angry, and I was heart-broken'

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BOTHELL, Wash. -- Overcrowding is forcing the North Shore School District to make a decision that many local families are upset about.

The district wants to bus more than 150 of its youngest students to less crowded schools, but some parents say that's a bad idea.

Rebecca Boss and her family live less than block from Canyon Creek Elementary school, where 5-year-old Eden is set to start kindergarten next year.

"We are three doors away, a hop skip and a jump," she said.

Under a new plan put forward by the school district, Eden and many other kindergarteners who live near their school would be bused miles away to another school.

"I was actually pretty angry, and I was heart-broken," Boss said.

Boss wants Eden to join an older brother and sister already attending Canyon Creek, and she said splitting up the family would make it harder for parents to volunteer, respond to emergencies and juggle after-school activities.

"To have to wait or come back to pick up my kindergartener because she is on a bus just really complicates everything," she said.

A recent boom in new home construction has thrown the school district into a difficult position with hundreds of new families settling in northeast Bothell.

School district officials know most parents don't like the idea of busing, but administrators say their plan makes sure students in first-through-sixth grade get to stay put.

The district is pledging to make the transition to busing as smooth as possible, but Boss doesn't understand why her school can't make more room.

"What have they done? Because it's only one classroom that they need," she said.